1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to endoscopy and more particularly, to endoscopes and sanitary disposable sheaths usable together for physical examinations as well as to a method and apparatus for installing and removing sheaths from endoscopes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To insure quality health care for the general public, there is an ever increasing need for cost efficient procedures as well as for effective, convenient, reliable, sterile instruments. These needs principally arise from the uncompromisable requirement for patient safety. Such safety is becoming more difficult to achieve due to increasing problems with new contagious viruses. Consider, for example the spread of acquired immune difficiency syndrome, AIDS. Unsanitized instruments have been clearly demonstrated to be one of the causes for this particular risk to patient health.
To a certain extent, cost effectiveness is as important to the health care of a population as is the quality of the care itself. If costs become prohibitive, health care will not be sought. The skyrocketing of insurance premiums compounds this cost burden for both physicians and patients alike. Effective, convenient, reliable, sterile, cost efficient instruments and procedures are thus important factors in insuring quality health care for a population generally.
Endoscopic examinations constitute a medical procedure for viewing and treating internal organs and passages of a patient. Endoscopes, the instruments employed in endoscopic examinations have long been used for a wide variety of diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Through time, their designs have been tailored to best achieve their particular purposes. The apparatus and methods which pertain to one type of endoscope are generally applicable to all types of endoscopes. For the sake of simplicity, therefore the endoscopes described and discussed herein will be limited to those designed for examining and treating the rectum and sigmoid colon of a patient. Such instruments are known as sigmoidoscopes, preferably flexible sigmoidoscopes.
Sigmoidoscopes are utilized in environments which necessitate their sterilization or sanitization between patients. Although a sterilized sigmoidoscope or other endoscope is normally utilized by the physician on a patient for only a short period of time, as for example a typical time period of about ten to forty minutes the sterilization thereafter in preparation for the next subsequent patient examination requires a long period of time, as for example many hours. The cost for an examination is therefore artificially increased due to the time and cost of sterilizing the instrument. This tends to drive up the cost of medical treatment when an endoscope is used. One solution would be to maintain a large supply of endoscopes for simultaneously sterilizing a large quantity at one time and thereby drive down the unit time and cost for the sterilization of each instrument. Endoscopes, however, are precision instruments and quite costly. Maintaining a full day's supply of such instruments for batch sterilization over night is an expense which need not be incurred if a thorough and rapid sanitization procedure were available.
The complexity of endoscope construction contributes to the complexity and cost of their sterilization. Their external surfaces may be adequately sterilized in a relatively short time. However, endoscopes normally include channels for the purpose of remotely guiding water, air, suction, biopsies and the like. Such channels are of small diameters and extend the entire length of the endoscope core. These channels may be contacted by bodily fluids and tissues during an examination. Therefore, in addition to the external surfaces, these channels require sterilization between usages, and it is these channels which present the complexitites, difficulties and time problems in sterilization. Among the more effective methods for sterilizing endoscopes is chemical vapor treatment. Such vapors, however, are toxic and potentially injurious to the person conducting the sterilization. Although effective, such method still retains the time and cost problems while creating the additional problem of safety to the employees and the environment.
In many segments of the health care field, problems of disease transmission from one patient to the next have been solved through the ever increasing utilization of disposable instruments or shields. These types of solutions have not found wide acceptance in the field of endoscopy despite the recognized benefits which would be realized. This is due in large part to the complexity of endoscopes as discussed above, particularly since their internal channels are hard to clean and are used as conduits for bodily fluids and tissues as may be needed for taking biopsies.
One approach to the disposable, sanitary shielding of endoscopes is a shield that is rolled onto the endoscope from the front or distal end toward the back or proximal end. An aperture or apertures in the distal end of the shield must be aligned with the channel or channels of the endoscope prior to the initiation of the rolling so as to permit the endoscope channels to function in their intended manners. Even if the shield is installed properly, bodily fluid and tissue may still contact non-disposable portions of the endoscope such as in its internal tubing and channels and thus may require sanitization of the entire endoscope between usages from one patient ot the next.
As illustrated by a large number of prior approaches, continuing efforts are being made in an attempt to solve the problem of efficiently, conveniently reliably and economically shielding medical instruments for sanitary purposes. None of the known approaches however, teaches or suggests the present inventive combination of component elements as disclosed herein. The present invention achieves its purposes, objectives, and advantages over the prior approaches, conveniently and reliably through a new, useful, and unobvious combination of component elements and method steps, at a great reduction in time and cost, and through the utilization of only readily available materials and conventional components.
These purposes, objectives and advantages should be construed as merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the present invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or by modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other purposes, objects, and advantages as well as a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and detailed description describing the preferred embodiments in addition to the scope of the invention as defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.